Frequently Asked Questions

Update on the Class Action: Am I a member or not?

If you have not received a letter, it may be that you were not affected by the privacy breach. However, we will not be accepting Equifax’s point of view that only 19,670 Canadians were affected. We expect to dispute Equifax’s views and will require it to provide convincing evidence of the numbers of persons affected.

If you are a Canadian that received a letter from Equifax, you are covered by the class action commenced by our firm. If you are a Canadian whose personal information was accessed by hackers, even if you are not aware, you are also covered by the class action. We have commenced a national class action on behalf of all affected residents of all provinces. You do not need to register on our website to be a member of the class action, it is simply helpful to do so to obtain updates.

Next steps in the Class Action?

The status of the class action is that another claim in Ontario was commenced by another law firm. As a result, the Superior Court of Justice is expected to have a hearing in December 2017 on which claim should proceed. After this, the next step in a class action ordinarily involves class action certification to decide whether the class action should proceed against Equifax, Inc. and Equifax Canada.

What will be the purpose of the Class Action?

Our class action has three goals:

To require Equifax to make an immediate, lump-sum payment to all persons whose personal information was affected by the privacy breach.

To have individualized hearings and additional damages paid to anyone who is the subject of further harm arising from the privacy breach, such as identity theft.

Given the sensitive nature of the information at stake, to require Equifax to create a long-term fund to cover future claims of harm.

What should I do if I received a letter from Equifax?

We are lawyers, not cyber-security financial experts. However, we have received concerned phone calls and e-mails from people who received letters from Equifax. Also, the class action can only provide you with money – it is not an adequate vehicle to take immediate steps to protect you. How are some ways you may be able to mitigate your risk?

If you received a letter from Equifax, contact Transunion and Equifax to ask for a fraud alert to be put on your account.

Ask for new credit cards and bank cards to be issued.

We understand that Services Canada will not issue you a new SIN unless there is actual evidence of financial fraud. Risk of fraud simply because you received a letter from Equifax is not sufficient.